


A Case of the Giggles

by notjustmom



Series: Box of 64 [30]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Fluffy, M/M, Parentlock, nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 14:49:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11106825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom





	A Case of the Giggles

She was just a few months old when he first heard it, a kind of gurgle, followed by what Sherlock would consider a chortle, then a snort escaped and the purest, happiest sound followed. He looked down into the crib and studied her. "Is that a giggle, Rosie?" She put her hand to her mouth as if she understood the question, but was slightly embarrassed by the sounds she was making. Once she was down for her nap, he settled on the couch, and considered the question of laughter. He wasn't accustomed to it, the kind that was meant kindly, any way. He spent the afternoon pondering it, when he should have been working on a triple homicide, though in the end the case was easier to solve than the questions he had about laughter. Eventually his reverie on laughter was short-circuited by the sound of Rosie fussing over the monitor. Fussing, he understood all too well.

"How does she know?" He asked John one night, months later.

"Who, what - huh?" John looked up from his laptop, then closed it as he saw Sherlock frown as if working on something that truly perplexed him.

"Rosie. She giggles. She laughs. She actually smiles, apparently for no reason at all, she seems happy. How does she know, John?"

"You mean, how does she know something is funny?"

Sherlock nodded.

John silently considered the question and realized he had no idea.

"I don't know."

"I mean, it must be something she just knows - I mean, it's not exactly something she's learned from us."

"No. I suppose not." John said quietly.

"Do you think -"

"What?"

Sherlock blushed a bit, then shrugged and began again. "Do you think she would teach me, us, how to -"

"How to laugh?"

"Well, I was actually thinking more about giggling."

"Giggling."

Sherlock nodded. "It's - I've been studying her, I've been trying to figure out what causes it. Sometimes it happens when I walk into her nursery, even when she's upset, suddenly her face just kind of stops and switches gears, but not always. On other occasions, it's completely internal, because she's sound asleep, and she'll smile and giggle softly, then stop. It's - perplexing."

John watched Sherlock's face and he couldn't help but smile; the great detective undone by the simple question of laughter. And then he started giggling. He clamped a hand over his mouth, and shook his head.

Sherlock raised an eyebrow at him and John was lost. 

"What - you're amused. Either that, or you're making fun of me." Sherlock crossed his arms, unsure what to make of John's reaction.

Once John could catch his breath, he sputtered, "No. God, no - it's just - you have solved hundreds of cases, you know the most arcane facts about so many things, and yet, you've spent -" 

"The best part of a year. Okay, maybe a year and a half."

"Eighteen months. You have spreadsheets, and journals -"

Sherlock nodded. "I've recorded her giggling - it changes, the pitch, the length of time -"

"Maybe it's something that is meant to be a mystery?"

"You don't think there's an answer."

"I think people laugh for different reasons. Rosie giggles when she sees you, because she loves you. She can't say the words, but she knows that you are one of the people that make her feel safe; you smile at her, you talk to her, you feed her and make her comfortable. You are one of her people. You make her happy even when you just hold her, when you do very little. Maybe you -"

"I'm overthinking it?"

"Possibly, a little? I mean - once we stopped thinking so hard about 'us,' it was natural, for things to -"

"So, I need to stop treating it like an investigation, and let it just -"

"Do you remember the first time we kissed?"

"Of course I do - I have -" Sherlock stopped and grinned.

"Charts, and notebooks -" John whispered against Sherlock's lips, then kissed him softly, and knew Sherlock's brain was slowly going offline. "Stacks of files -" He murmured as he felt Sherlock's fingers in his hair. "Gigabytes of data..." and then Sherlock giggled.

"Oh." Sherlock pulled back just far enough to gaze into John's darkening eyes. "It's that simple?"

John nodded as he touched the crinkles at the corners of Sherlock's eyes, gently cradling Sherlock's face in his hands. "Here. And here," he ran a finger along his favourite dimple that softened the hard edge of Sherlock's jawline, " evidence of the fact that you know what happiness is, Sherlock, even if you can't wrap your genius brain around it; she has learned joy from you, from us, even if we don't laugh nearly enough."

"If that is so, John, it is only because you made it possible for me to believe that I was worthy of such a gift. Your love and Rosie's happiness -"

"Sher-"

Sherlock shook his head and whispered, "are the greatest joys I will ever know."

"Damn..." John bit his lip as he watched a smile wash over Sherlock's face.

"John?"

"No, it's fine -" a giggle from the monitor made them both freeze, then they both laughed until tears ran down their cheeks. "It's all fine," John sighed as he kissed Sherlock once more before he rolled out of bed and made his way to the doorway before turning around and mumbling, "I -"

"PaaaPAAAAA!!!!" Rosie's shriek effectively muted John's words.

"love you, too, John." Sherlock grinned at him from the depths of the pillows.

John's eyes danced at him, amusement mixed with a bit of astonishment, but he found he could no longer speak coherently, so he blew Sherlock a kiss, then vanished down the hall, only to be heard a moment later, "Hey, Rosie. Did you miss us?" Rosie babbled happily as John changed her nappy, then picked her up and carried her back to their bed.

"Daaaaaaa!" Rosie screeched, then snorted and grinned down at Sherlock.

All Sherlock could do was laugh.


End file.
